Seeding with a split seeder

I have to admit I must be doing something wrong when I put seed down. I thatched and core aerated sections on two of my customers lawns and then reseeded areas. the soil was soft so the seed could root. I did not put hay down however. I had them water the areas. I did not have much luck in these two cases. I would like to know if anyone could give me a brief tutorial on what a split seeder does and how a split seeder works. Would it be better to use this to reseed/overseed as apposed to spreading seed with a spreader after core aeration. Thank you,
Kenny s

a slit seeder, also known as a powerseeder, is used to "inject or place" seed into a existing lawn, or a lawn which was killed off to renovate. A powerseeder has blades underneath and a seed hopper that places the seeds and the blades follow it up and bury the seeds to a depth you determine. This works best on a renovation or simple overseed job.

Thank you for responding to my call for help. The lawns in question were both established lawns that, due to different conditions, thinned out and died off. One house has a dog which uses the front lawn as its private toilet, and th other lawn had insect problems which I treated, but the lawn area turned brown and died off. Like I said I thatched the areas with my thatcher, core aerated them and them throw down seed. I just watched the Lawn Solutions video on their "Law Renovator" and I was very impressed with what it does. I think this might be something I may look into for future overseeding my accounts. What do you think?
Kenny s

To any of you out there who have done overseeding or powerseeding with a machine, I am looking to buy one and I have never used one before. I watched the video of the one of the sites advertised here on Lawn Site called Lawn Solutions and it sells a powerseeder called the Lawn Reviltilizer, 6 hp and 9 hp for comm. use. There is also the Turfco direct site advertised on this site who also sells them. My question is can any of you give me any advice on them and if it is a good investment.
Thank you,
Kenny S

I have to question your reasoning for 'thatching' as you call it, and core aerating already weakened lawns. To remove thatch, there must be thatch already present, and it must be at a thickness that is preventing nutrients and moisture from reaching the root zone, in addition to preventing proper rooting depth. Running these machines over weak lawns just tears them up. As does core aerating a weak lawn. A slit seeder would have been the way to go from the start, standing alone is my guess.

bglawncommand,
Thank you for your reply. To answer your query about thatching before I seeded, I should have explained more in depth. I did not use the thatcher to dethatch this time, actually to sort of till the soil by lower the thatcher down and letting the blades dig in to the soil and loosen it up before I core aerated it. The grass area that was affected was very sparce and weeds were taking over. I killed the weeds and thought using the thatcher as a tiller, (like I said above), would loosen the topsoil. Aerating it would loosen it more and put cores in so, (I was hoping), the seed would go into the holes and I would get new grass as a result of this. Not much luck. I went to Lesco today and got some advice. I purchased a soil sample core tool and I am going to take samples and give it to Lesco to send to the lab and see what kind of condition the soil is in. I actually went there to look at their Lawn Renovator and see about buying one. They told me wait for the fall, core aerate the lawn and then overseed with a spreader and see if I get results then. He said it is alot of money to spend on a machine that you are not going to use alot and make $$ with it. I was thinking that I would try to overseed my customers lawn each year, preferably in the fall before leaf season. I would love to get one, but they are alot of $$ for a one man operation. I dethatch and core aerate in the spring clean up erery season, so my lawns are dethatched and I pick up the clippings when I cut. I am learning this business little by little, and I am hoping this site will help out with that. It has already.